Adventures in food, wine, and gardening

It’s the final countdown before the big day! This seems like a good time to offer a few last minute tips and tricks. These are just a few I’ve picked up but, of course, feel free to leave additional tips or questions in the comments section if there’s anything I missed!

1. When carving the turkey, many people start by slicing the breast from the outside in, which can lead to the first slice getting all of the skin. If you remove the whole breast, lay it on the cutting board, and slice from there, each piece will have a nice piece of crispy skin. This photo from foodnetwork.com illustrates this idea well.

2. If you have a spare burner, it can be handy to leave a pot of stock warming on a back burner as you prepare the meal. One of the major sins of Thanksgiving, dryness, can be easily overcome with a ladleful of hot stock. This is also a great way to reheat things if your dishes didn’t all come out at the same time. Just hit that stuffing, potatoes, or turkey with some hot stock to warm it up.

3. Consider cooking the turkey upside-down. This leads to a less beautiful presentation, but if aesthetics aren’t a concern or you carve the turkey before presenting it anyways, this can lead to extra moist white meat.

4. If you are serving a large crowd, you could consider cooking two smaller turkeys rather than one large bird. This helps to prevent the breasts from drying out before the rest of the turkey is cooked and can keep more guests happy. Four legs are better than two!

5. Think about using squash for serving. One year we didn’t have enough serving dishes for everything we wanted to make so we served the stuffing in roasted acorn squash and incorporated it into the centerpiece. This year we’re serving pumpkin soup inside a pumpkin instead of a big bowl. This can add a festive touch and give you one less serving dish to wash at the end.

6. If you have trouble with lumps or grit when using flour to make gravy, you can skip the flour and make a slurry by whisking corn starch and stock and then using that mixture to thicken the gravy. We came across this trick when we moved and forgot to buy flour but had corn starch on hand and it was the smoothest sauce we had made to date.

7. I realize I sound like the ambassador of cheese, but I think it’s a good trick to keep in mind that if anything seems a little bland, a nice shred of parmesan cheese can go a long way. This works great for squash, potatoes, brussel sprouts, and lots of soups. We’re even grating parmesan into our gravy this year.

8. Don’t forget the herbs! Sage is the superstar of Thanksgiving. If you have any dish that doesn’t quite taste enough like the holidays, my first suggestion would to be to add more sage. This works whether you use dried sage or fresh. This is a photo of our awesome purple sage plant. If you ever think about starting an herb garden, this is a great one to start with because it grows quickly and the thing just won’t die despite our best effort.

9. Keep in mind that there are many things you can do today if you want to get a head start. Some casseroles like the broccoli casserole that is a staple on our holiday menu since it was passed down from the Southern grandmas can be mixed up the day ahead and just baked the day of Thanksgiving. Just save any crispy topping (like the dry stuffing mix on this one) for the day of so it doesn’t get soggy. Celery, onion, and carrots can all be chopped up in advanced and stored in plastic bags also.

10. Don’t forget to give thanks! It’s easy for foodies like us to get wrapped up in the gastronomical whirlwind that is Thanksgiving, but giving thanks is really a highlight of the day. I can always be thankful for a day full of food and family.

Finally as you cook your way through the day, don’t be afraid to improvise!

One of the things I’ve noticed since we’ve become foodies is that we just can’t leave well enough alone. When we visit my family in Ohio, it drives them crazy to see us spending the whole time eating a meal we’ve cooked discussing how to tweak it the next time. Whereas some see a holiday classic when looking at a big fluffy pile of mashed potatoes, I see a blank slate with endless possibilities. So, here’s a simple recipe for basic mashed potatoes and a list of ideas for combinations of “mix-ins.” When it comes to mashed potatoes, as in life, cheese is your friend.

Pepper (white pepper can be substituted if you like purely white mashed potatoes)

How To:

It’s up to you whether you want to peel your potatoes, but keep in mind waxy-skinned potatoes are better if you are leaving the skin on. Chop into even cubes and place into a large pot. Cover with cold water, salt the water, and boil until tender. Drain the water and add the half stick of butter and warmed heavy cream as well as salt and pepper to taste. Mash the potatoes using a hand or stand mixer, but be careful not to overwork them as they can become gummy if the starches are broken down too much.

One you have your base ready, have fun adding as much or little of these mix-ins as you like!

Mascarpone cheese and chives

Sauteed or roasted garlic and parmesan

Fontina and scallions

Cream cheese, parsley, and chives

Gorgonzola and crumbled bacon (we use turkey bacon)

Rosemary (chopped finely! we skipped chopping once and it was like potatoes full of little sticks) and sage

Cream cheese, roasted garlic, and red pepper flakes

Sautéed leeks and garlic

Smoked gouda, fontina, and scallions

Caramelized onion and roasted red pepper

Goat cheese and sautéed shallots

Chipotle pepper and cream cheese

Sour cream and dijon

Cheddar cheese (use white cheddar if you want to keep them looking like classic mashed potatoes), chives, and thyme

Mozzarella stirred in and topped with parmesan and breadcrumbs and briefly broiled for a crispy top

I think serving a signature cocktail is such an easy way to add a festive touch to any holiday gathering. When serving a crowd, wine-based cocktails can bring such a warm touch while keeping beverage expenses lower than providing a full bar. As an added bonus, they are harder to over-indulge in than traditional cocktails so they keep the holiday spirit up without knocking you down!

These are three of my favorites, which I like to serve in glasses that fit the theme of the beverage and the occasion. All of these recipes can be made in big batches so you don’t spend the whole evening tending to drinks.

Spiced Red Wine:

In the days of the crockpot craze, this is a great one to leave warming in a crockpot and let guests help themselves. Just add a full-bodied red wine (shiraz and chianti are good options for this) to the crockpot with a small splash of orange juice, sliced oranges, and either store-bought mulling spices or a mix of cinnamon, star anise, and cloves. Allow to heat through before serving and garnish with orange slices, cranberries, or cinnamon sticks. This one has the added plus of filling your home with a wonderful holiday scent!

Champagne Cider:

This one is light and refreshing but still works well with the season. Chop a mix of apples and pears into squares or slices, whatever your preference. Add one part apple cider to three parts champagne and sprinkle cinnamon over the top. Garnish with the apples, pears, and a cinnamon stick. We love this one in mason jars!

Cranberry Pomegranate Mimosas:

We love to sip these and get into the holiday spirit while we start cooking our Thanksgiving dinner. It’s such a festive way to kick off the day! Simply fill a flute or wine glass halfway with champagne and add a dash of cranberry juice and a dash of pomegranate juice. A couple of cranberries or a spoonful of pomegranate arils look beautiful floating around on the bubbles.

We serve this with crackers, pieces of baguette, sliced fruit, really whatever else is around. Honestly, you could put it on a shoe and your guests would still love it.

You’ll Need:

¼ cup brown sugar

¾ pecans

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 roll out pie crust

1 16 ounce wheel of brie

1 egg

1 cup sugar

½ cup water

6 tablespoons butter

½ cup heavy whipping cream

How To:

For the Brie:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix together the maple syrup, brown sugar, and ¼ cup of the pecans. Roll the pie crust out on a cutting board or other flat surface and pour the pecan mix onto the crust in a circle about the size of your brie. Place the brie on top and wrap the whole thing in the crust, smoothing out the edges and making sure the crust meets all the way around. Flip the brie pretty-side-up, brush with an egg wash made of egg white and a splash of water, and bake for approximately 25 minutes until golden brown. You’ve just made brie on croûte and could stop there but, oh, please don’t.

For the Sauce:

Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk or stir until the mixture begins to boil, then stop stirring immediately. Once the sugar turns a light amber color (just a few minutes), add the butter. This may foam up briefly. When the butter is melted, take the pan off the heat and stir in the cream until smooth. Add the remaining pecans and pour on, over, under, or around, the brie.

Optional:

I love making food beautiful, so I can’t help but decorate this brie with the leftover pie crust. If you’d like to add a little flourish like I do, you can use cookie or pie cutters to cut out shapes or, my favorite, cut out a little leaf with a butter knife and add a little stem made from a piece of the crust rolled in your hand. Just stick them to the top before popping the brie in the oven. This step just adds a couple of minutes but makes this dish feel even more special for the holidays.

Shout out: This is a variation on a recipe my mom gave me. Great find!

I can’t imagine a better time to start writing about food than the week leading up to Thanksgiving! This is my favorite day of the year. It’s like the foodie Superbowl.

I keep running into tips and tricks online and in magazines on how to get around spending the whole day cooking, but in my household a whole day cooking is our idea of an awesome time. Now if only we could find some people to feed. It looks like it’s just going to be the two of us this year but that won’t stop us from making a turkey and all the sides while sipping cranberry mimosas and mulled wine all day (those recipes to come). We start planning our Thanksgiving recipe for the year some time around 8:00 the Thanksgiving before and never quite finish getting excited about what to make or how to switch things up. The one thing we can’t seem to avoid making is our Maple Cranberry Apple Pie. This recipe was a happy accident that happened when we decided to Vermontify a traditional apple pie recipe with some maple syrup while also realizing we didn’t have some of the traditional ingredients for apple pie and subbed in pumpkin pie spice. There, I said it, the secret ingredient to our apple pie is pumpkin pie spice!

Recipe: Maple Cranberry Apple Pie

You’ll Need:

1 package of roll out pie crust – you can get fancy and do it yourself, but we cheat

8 sliced apples – a blend of baking apples and a couple of granny smiths works nicely

½ cup dried cranberries

½ cup sugar

2 tablespoons maple syrup

¼ flour

½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

½ teaspoon cinnamon – more to taste if you love cinnamon

A pinch of salt

1 egg

2 tablespoons of butter

How To:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice apples to a thickness you like, keeping in mind that thicker slices will likely to be firmer when the pie is cooked. We prefer to end up with soft apples so we do a fairly small slice. Mix together the apples, dried cranberries, sugar, maple syrup, flour, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and salt in a bowl.

To prepare the crust, roll it out and put one sheet into the pie pan. Dump the apple mix into the first pie crust and top with the other. This part can be as easy or as complicated as you like. You can simply put the other crust on top and cut slits to let out steam or go fancier and make a nice lattice or use cookie or pie crust cutters to cut out designs to throw on top. Once your top crust is in place, make an egg wash with one egg white and a splash of water and brush the crust to make it shiny. Dot the top of the pie with the butter. Pop the pie in the oven for around 40 minutes, checking on it periodically. It’s ready to take out once the filling begins to bubble up and the crust is golden brown. Enjoy!